CHEN ZHEN 陈箴 Beyond the Endgame Curated by Martina Köppel-Yang
QUALIA CONTEMPORARY ART | Sept 26 – Nov 14, 2026
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CHEN ZHEN 陈箴 Juechang - Fifty Strokes to Each, 1998 Video of Performance (Pictured: Still from video of "Juechang Fifty Strokes to Each") 6 min 24 sec
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CHEN ZHEN 陈箴 Juechang - Fifty Strokes to Each, 1998 Video of Performance (Pictured: Still from video of "Juechang Fifty Strokes to Each") 6 min 24 sec
www.qualiagallery.com
CHEN ZHEN 陈箴 Juechang - Fifty Strokes to Each, 1998 Video of Performance (Pictured: Still from video of "Juechang Fifty Strokes to Each") 6 min 24 sec
www.qualiagallery.com
CHEN ZHEN 陈箴 BIOGRAPHY Website
Chen Zhen was born in Shanghai in 1955 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution in a French speaking family of doctors in the city’s former French Concession. From an early age he was drawn to the connections between traditional Chinese philosophy and Western culture. He entered the Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts in 1973 and began teaching there in 1976; in 1978 he was admitted to the Shanghai Theatre Academy to study stage design, becoming a professor there in 1982. At twenty-five he was diagnosed with hemolytic anemia, an incurable illness, and living with disease gave him a profound understanding of the value of time and space. In 1986 he moved to France. Continuing his studies there, he experienced the collision of Eastern and Western cultures at first hand, and set painting aside to commit himself fully to installation. From 1986 to 1989 he pursued advanced study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques in Paris, later serving as assistant professor at the latter in 1993. His work evolved in these years under the influence of the “transcultural” school — ideas rooted in the relationships among humanity, consumer
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society and nature, which he came to term “Transexperience.” Chen Zhen’s works of the early 1990s often present utopian visions of multicultural dialogue: poetic settings filled with unexpected connections and combinations of materials, in which Eastern traditions and Western aesthetic vocabularies form entirely new relations. In the final two years of his life he turned to the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine, believing its ways of thinking and founding principles closely aligned with his own artistic philosophy. He transformed and refined that knowledge into a dialogue between body and spirit, and between humanity and the universe, in his last works. Chen Zhen died on December 13, 2000. His open-minded approach to art and the quality of his work earned him international acclaim and recognition, and his work has since been exhibited in museums and institutions throughout the world.
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CHEN ZHEN 陈箴 CURRICULUM VITAE BORN 1955, SHANGHAI, CHINA; DIED 2000; LIVED AND WORKED IN PARIS, FRANCE
EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
1973 – Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts, Shanghai, China 1976 – Instructor, Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts, Shanghai, China 1978 – Shanghai Theatre Academy, Stage Design, Shanghai, China 1982 – Professor, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai, China 1986–1989 – École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, Paris, France 1993 – Assistant Professor, Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, Paris, France SELECTED SOLO AND RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2026 Chen Zhen: Return & Reverberate, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai, China 2020 Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy 2015 Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China 2008 MART Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Trento and Rovereto, Italy 2007 Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria 2003 P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France 2002 National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA 2001 Serpentine Galleries, London, United Kingdom 2000 Chen Zhen: In Praise of Black Magic, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy 1992 Chen Zhen at Le Magasin, Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France
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CHEN ZHEN 陈箴 CURRICULUM VITAE BORN 1955, SHANGHAI, CHINA; DIED 2000; LIVED AND WORKED IN PARIS, FRANCE
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS
2024 The Writings of Today Are a Promise for Tomorrow, SAMoCA, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2009 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy 2007 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy 1999 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Cities on the Move, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark 1998 Montreal Biennale, Montreal, Canada Swan Song — Fifty Strokes Each, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel 1997 Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea The Quiet in the Land: Everyday Life, Contemporary Art and Projects, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA Artist Project, Reopening Exhibition of P.S.1 Art Center, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA 1995 Dialogues for Peace, Palais des Nations, United Nations European Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland 1994 Deserted Place, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA AWARDS AND GRANTS
1990–2000 – Recipient of six creation grants from French and American art institutions
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